Notes from retiring Secretary of Education William Bennett on Cabinet service, achieving and maintaining capital curmudgeon status, and the debilitating effects of cold salmon after sundown:
Bennett's law of diminishing smarts.
Most Cabinet officers are brightest in the morning. After 10 a.m., the average IQ drops a point every half an hour; by nightfall it is off the charts.
The key to political longevity.
It is nonsense that a public official must attend receptions and eat the food, both of which further enervate him. "I have eaten a lot of poached salmon, and I don't like it, particularly at 10 p.m.,"...